Instagram is testing a new long-form video format called Features that allows videos up to 90 minutes long, a sharp jump from the 20-minute cap on Reels. Instagram Vice President of Product Tessa Lyons and Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri announced the format Monday, Oct. 26, and the test is currently limited to select creators in the U.S. and Brazil.
The key word is “test.” Features isn’t rolling out to every account, and Instagram hasn’t said when, or if, it’ll open up to everyone. For now, it’s an early-stage experiment, not a broadly available tool.
What Instagram Announced
Features videos can run as long as 90 minutes, according to Mashable. That’s well short of YouTube, which lets verified accounts upload videos up to 12 hours long. The format is built for landscape video, and Mashable reported it’ll be available on desktop, the mobile app and Instagram for TV.
Instagram is also testing a companion tool called Clips as Reels, which lets creators link up to eight Reels to a longer video. The idea is that a viewer can go from a teaser to the full episode without leaving the app.
It’s a notable reversal for Mosseri. “For a long time, I have been against doing long-form video on Instagram,” he admitted in the announcement video.
Lyons pitched Features as a way to keep viewers on Instagram when a clip isn’t enough. “Reels is still going to be a core part of Instagram. But when you want to go deeper with the creators you love and the content that they’re creating, you should be able to do that on Instagram,” she said.
During this early testing phase, viewers can adjust playback speed, but features such as captions and chapters aren’t available yet.
What It Means For Creators And Viewers
For viewers, Features means the possibility of watching a full-length video on Instagram instead of getting redirected to YouTube after seeing a short clip in Reels. For creators, the picture is more complicated.
Instagram creators are typically paid through brand partnerships rather than a share of ad revenue. YouTube, by contrast, gives creators 55% of ad revenue on long-form videos through its Partner Program and 45% on Shorts. That gap fueled immediate pushback on Threads and Reddit after Features was announced, with creators questioning why they’d upload long videos to a platform that doesn’t pay them the way YouTube does.
Creator Sidney Raskind put it bluntly on Threads: “Y’all know how this works and you know how ad calls work and you know that long form creators need ad rev to survive but you’re ask[ing] them all to upload long form content for free just to live on your platform. That’s insane.”
Tech creator M. Brandon Lee raised a similar point, asking “Why should I post my long form there? What benefit does it bring me?” and noting that Instagram limits affiliate links unless creators pay for more of them. Mental health creator Divija Bhasin left the most-liked comment on the announcement post, asking “Why would anyone post an unpaid long video on Instagram if we can just post it on YouTube and actually get paid for the effort?”
There’s one exception to the “unpaid” complaint, though it only covers a select few. Business Insider reported that Meta has offered some creators $50,000 to post to Features, with some six-figure offers reaching as high as $500,000. Instagram also told Variety it’s directly funding some creators who make longer content during the test. Those are hand-picked deals, not a program anyone can join.
Background On Instagram’s Monetization Gap
Instagram has been down this road before. It launched IGTV, a home for longer videos, in 2018, and in 2020 it started giving creators 55% of the ad revenue on their IGTV videos, the same split YouTube uses. That program ended when Instagram shut down IGTV in 2022 to focus on Reels.
Mosseri acknowledged the concern directly in a Threads post Oct. 29, writing that “the economics matter a ton” and that Instagram is exploring multiple options to help long-form creators get paid.
Speaking on “The Colin and Samir Show” with hosts Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry, Mosseri laid out how creator payment generally works. “You can get paid by the platform directly, you can get paid by a fan, and you can get paid by a brand,” he said, adding that on Instagram, brand deals are currently the primary path. He also noted that inserting ads into long videos can disrupt the viewing experience, and that Instagram’s existing performance-based payment program is small and already loses money. “We spend more money than we make back by a long shot,” Mosseri said, so scaling it up doesn’t make sense.
A Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch it’s “too early to share a long-term monetization model,” but said the company is exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans and Instagram, including performance-based incentives. Over time, the spokesperson said, the company expects “compounding benefits for creators to tell new stories, reach new audiences, and find new partners, which should lead to many monetization opportunities.”
Part of the strategy ties into Instagram for TV, which launched on Amazon Fire TV in December 2025 and has since expanded to more devices, including Apple TV. Lyons said she expects the big screen to be where most long-form viewing happens. “We think the best viewing experience for long-form horizontal content is on a big horizontal screen, and so I think that that is where we will expect a lot of the deep consumption to happen over time,” she said.
Critics have also pointed out that free long-form uploads would give Meta more material to train its AI models, another way the company benefits even if creators don’t.
What’s Next
Instagram hasn’t announced a timeline for opening Features to everyone, though it has said it plans to expand the U.S. test to tens of thousands of creators. The company also hasn’t committed to a specific monetization plan. Creators weighing whether to join future rounds of testing will likely watch for any update on revenue sharing before committing long-form content to the platform.
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